The invention relates to forming structures by electrochemical deposition.
Microfabrication processes (also referred to as micromachining) are being developed and refined for eventual application to the manufacture of complex devices including machines and instrumentation. These processes are being directed to the production of machines of miniaturized devices having features in the range of a few microns and in some cases features in the submicron range, some of which currently exist on a macroscopic scale.
Microfabrication processes include: bulk micromachining, in which material is removed from regions of a substrate; surface micromachining, in which a thin conformal structural layer and one or more sacrificial layers are deposited onto a substrate; and LIGA, which generates 2.5-D extruded shapes by molding materials around metals molds which were formed by the metals being electrodeposited within openings in thick synchrotron-processed photoresists. These processes are used to produce structures of simple geometries (e.g., they can be defined by 1-4 different cross sections), and are usually customized for each application.
Solid freeform fabrication, which is also referred to as rapid prototyping, is used to manufacture macroscopic parts from hundreds of layers by generating one layer at a time. These processes produce features typically greater than 50-100 μm in width using layers typically greater than 50-150 μm thick. These processes typically generate a layer serially. These processes employ structures for supporting the part being manufactured. The support structures are often customized to the part.